The present invention relates to an improvement in a cosmetic container for housing a stick type cosmetic material in such a manner that the material can be fed and a cartridge for the container.
With regard to a cosmetic container which feeds a stick type cosmetic material contained in a cartridge, such as eyeliner, eyebrow pencil, eye shadow, or lipstick, due to relative rotations of the cartridge and a container body, fore example, there are proposals in Japanese Patent Laid-Open publication No. Sho 60-48706 and Japanese Utility Model Publication No. Hei. 4-30961, and the like which are official gazettes published by the Japanese Patent Office.
Among them, a cosmetic container disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. Sho 60-48706 is shown in FIGS. 11 and 12.
An inner cylinder 103 which coaxially extends is installed in a front cylinder 102 of a cartridge 101 as one body. A thread cylinder 104 arranged between the inner cylinder 103 and the front cylinder 102 in such a manner that relative rotations can freely be made is connected by spline with a holder section 106 of a container body 105 in such a manner that relative rotations cannot be made. Further, engagement projections 109 formed at a retaining member 108 for retaining a stick type cosmetic material 107 are engaged with both sliding grooves 110 which are formed at the inner cylinder 103 extending in an axial direction and spiral groove 111 which are spirally formed around a shaft of the thread cylinder 104.
Thus, when the cartridge 101 and the container body 105 are relatively rotated, the inner cylinder 103 and the thread cylinder 104 are relatively rotated and the engagement projections 109 engaged with a spiral groove 111 advance according to the rotations, but the engagement projections 109 cannot rotate because these are also engaged with the sliding grooves 110 which extend in an axial direction. Therefore, the engagement projections 109 move only in an axial direction.
Thus, the retaining member 108 united with the engagement projections 109 moves in a direction of a front end of the front cylinder 102, and the stick type cosmetic material 107 retained by the retaining member 108 is fed through an opening 112 provide at a front end of the front cylinder 102.
However, in the cosmetic container disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Publication No. Sho 60-48706, it is necessary to engage the engagement projections of the retaining member 108 with both the sliding grooves 110 and the spiral groove 111. Therefore, it is necessary to coaxially pile up the inner cylinder 103 at which the sliding grooves 110 are formed and the thread cylinder 104 at which the spiral groove 111 is formed, whereby a diameter of the cosmetic container becomes large.
A cosmetic container disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No.
Hei 4-30961 is shown in FIG. 13.
Sliding grooves 203 are formed on an inner circumferential surface on a front end side of a front cylinder 202 of a cartridge 201, whereas a spiral cylinder 205 at which a spiral groove 204 is formed is rotatably housed on a rear end side of the front cylinder 202. With regard to a retaining member 207 which retains a stick type cosmetic material, engagement projections 208 on its front end side are engaged with the sliding grooves 203 and also engagement projections 209 on its base end side are engaged with the spiral groove 204.
The cartridge 201 is housed in a container body which is not shown in the drawings in such a manner that relative rotations can freely be made, and the spiral cylinder 205 is connected with the container body in such a manner that relative rotations cannot be made.
Due to such constitution, a part of the front cylinder 202 at which the sliding grooves 203 are formed and the spiral cylinder 205 can be arranged in an axial direction and in series and they are not coaxially piled up, thereby enabling the cosmetic container to be thin as a whole.
In the cartridge 201 disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. Hei 4-30961, the engagement projections 209 formed at the base end of the retaining member 207 are spirally engaged with the spiral groove 204 provided at the inner circumference of the spiral cylinder 205, and when the spiral cylinder 205 is rotated, the engagement projections 209 move in an axial direction by a distance equivalent to a stroke of the retaining member 207 and the stick type cosmetic material 206.
Thus, the spiral groove 204 has to be at least longer in an axial direction than a stroke length of the stick type cosmetic material 206. However, from a technical point of view, it is difficult to make such a long spiral groove 204 in molding the spiral cylinder 205.
To be more precise, usually, molding of the spiral cylinder 204 is performed at an outer circumference of a core pin provided at a forming die, and the spiral groove 204 is formed in accordance with the shape of an outer circumferential surface of the core pin. And, the spiral cylinder 205 after molding is removed from the core pin. In this case, if the spiral cylinder 205 is short, it can easily be drawn out from the core pin, but if the spiral cylinder 205 is long, it cannot be detached from the forming die unless the core pin is rotated.
Particularly, in order to simultaneously produce a plurality of spiral cylinders 205 using a single forming die, it is necessary to provide the forming die with a plurality of rotatable core pins. In this case, the forming die becomes complicated and the maintenance is difficult. If the forming die is simplified to have only a single core pin, productive efficiency cannot be increased.
Further, if the stick type cosmetic material 206 is long and narrow, a stroke of the retaining member 207 will be longer, whereby the spiral cylinder 205 will be long and narrow. Thus, it is difficult to form the spiral groove 204 covering the total length of such long and narrow spiral cylinder 205. This also becomes a cause of the increase of costs of a cosmetic container.
Further, in the case of a cosmetic container, it is preferable for various cartridges for stick type cosmetic materials of various diameters, such as extrafine diameter (for example, approximately 1.5 mm to 2.0 mm) and relatively large diameter (for example, approximately 6 mm to 8 mm in the case of a lipstick or the like) to be applicable to a common container body according to the use. Therefore, it is necessary for cartridges to have structure applicable to stick type cosmetic materials of various diameters.
However, in the cartridge 201 described above, it is not taken into consideration that if a stick type cosmetic material 206 having an extrafine diameter and insufficient hardness is installed, for example, it may be damaged or detached from the retaining member 207 when the retaining member 207 is twisted at the feeding limit of the stick type cosmetic material 206.
The present invention is made in consideration of the problems described above. An object of the present invention is to provide a cosmetic container which houses a stick type cosmetic material in such a manner that the material can be fed and a cartridge for the container. These are easy to manufacture and assemble at a low cost, have considerable flexibility in design, and are applicable to stick type cosmetic materials having various diameters and hardness.
A cartridge according to the present invention has a front cylinder which feeds a stick type cosmetic material through a front end opening. Further, the cartridge is composed of a cylindrical body coaxially and rotatably connected to the front cylinder, a rod which is inserted in the cylindrical body, a plurality of engagement projections formed at an outer circumference of the rod, a spiral groove which is formed at a part of an inner circumference of the cylindrical body and which the plurality of engagement projections are spirally engaged with, a cosmetic material retaining member which is formed on a front end side of the rod and also arranged in the front cylinder, and a sliding mechanism which makes the cosmetic material retaining section unrotatble around a shaft of the front cylinder and slidable in an axial direction of the front cylinder, wherein the cosmetic material retaining section is slid as one body with the rod due to relative rotations of the front cylinder and the cylindrical body.
Further, according to the present invention, the plurality of engagement projections are formed in an axial direction of the rod at least ranging over a stroke length of the rod, and also the spiral groove is engaged only with a part of the plurality of engagement projections at each stroke position of the rod.
Thus, when the stick type cosmetic material is fed from the cosmetic container, with the cartridge housed in a container body, a front cylinder of the cartridge is rotated in a predetermined direction with respect to the container body. In this case, the rod connected to the front cylinder via the sliding mechanism in such a manner that the rod cannot rotate in an axial direction is rotated together with the front cylinder as one body. On the other hand, since the cylindrical body does not rotate with respect to the container body, eventually the rod rotates with respect to the cylindrical body. Thus, the rod which is spirally engaged with a spiral cylinder section of the cylindrical body due to the plurality of engagement projections is fed out in an axial direction through an opening provided at a front end of the cylindrical body, and the stick type cosmetic material retained by the cosmetic material retaining section of the rod is fed out through an opening provided at a front end of the cylindrical body. On the other hand, in order to retract the stick type cosmetic material into the cosmetic container, it will be sufficient if the front cylinder of the cartridge is rotated in a reverse direction with respect to the container body.
As described above, a feeding mechanism of stick type cosmetic materials (a mechanism for feeding a rod from a cylindrical body) is composed of engagement projections and a spiral groove. The pluralities of engagement projections are provided at an outer circumference of the rod. Thus, for example, if it is arranged such that the plurality of engagement projections are installed in an axial direction of the rod at least ranging over a stroke length of the rod and a part of these engagement projections is engaged with a spiral groove of a spiral cylinder section one after another according to a stroke position, a stroke of the stick type cosmetic material can be secured even though the spiral groove is drastically shorter than the stroke length. Therefore, when the rod is molded out of plastic by injection, since the spiral groove is short, the extraction from a die member (for example, a core pin) can easily be performed and a special mechanism for rotating the die member or the like is not required. Thus, it can easily be manufactured and the production costs can be reduced.
Further, according to the present invention, a stopper member is installed on a base end side of the rod, whereas a downward step section is formed at the cylindrical body and a stroke position where the s topper member and the downward step section come into contact in a stroke of the rod is defined as a stroke limit.
Further, according to the present invention, the spiral cylinder section at which the spiral groove is formed is provided on a front end side of the cylindrical body, and also a lower end of the spiral cylinder is rendered to be the downward step section.
Due to the constitution described above, a stroke limit of the rod is defined by the contact of the stopper member and the downward step section, thereby stabilizing the stroke of the stick type cosmetic material.
Further, according to the present invention, the entire cylindrical body is housed in the front cylinder.
Further, according to the present invention, the front end side of the cylindrical body is rotatably connected to an inside diameter of the front cylinder and also the base end side of the cylindrical body is exposed from the front cylinder.
Further, according to the present invention, the sliding mechanism is composed of an engagement section which is formed at an outer circumference of the cosmetic material retaining section and a sliding section which is formed at an inner circumference of the front cylinder and is engaged with the engagement section.
As described above, since the sliding mechanism is composed of the engagement section and the sliding section, it is possible to constitute a simple sliding mechanism which provides secure guidance in an axial direction.
Further, according to the present invention, the plurality of engagement projections are arranged on a straight line which extends in an axial direction, and also the engagement projections are engaged with the sliding section when fed from the front end side of the cylindrical body.
Since the engagement projections are engaged with the sliding section of the sliding mechanism as described above, an inside diameter of a part of the front cylinder at which the sliding section is formed can be almost as small as an outside diameter of the rod, whereby the cartridge can be slender. Further, the engagement projections also serve as an engagement section of the sliding mechanism, and therefore sliding operation of a push rod becomes stable and also the cartridge becomes stronger to resist a load in a torsional direction due to support by the engagement projections.
Further, according to the present invention, the cosmetic material retaining section is composed of a plurality of claws, and these claws are used as the engagement section. Also, a plurality of engagement grooves with which the claws are engaged are formed at an inner circumference of the front cylinder and used as the sliding section.
Further, according to the present invention, the plurality of engagement projections are arranged coaxially with the claws, and the engagement projections are engaged with the engagement grooves when fed from the front end side of the cylindrical body.
Further, according to the present invention, it is constituted such that the plurality of claws are installed in a standing position around a base section of the cosmetic material retaining section which is fixed to the rod and the cosmetic material is retained inside the plurality of claws. Also, a width of projection, in a direction of a diameter of the cartridge, of a part of the claws which retains the cosmetic material is equal to or narrower than a width of projection of the claws at the base section which is fixed to the rod and a width of projection of the plurality of engagement projections in a direction of a diameter of the cartridge.
According to the present invention described above, the claws which retain the stick type cosmetic material also serve as the engagement section and therefore the cartridge can have simple and rational constitution.
Further, since a width, in a direction of a diameter of the cartridge, of a part of the claws which retains the cosmetic material is equal to or narrower than a width of projection of a part of the claws which is fixed to a body of the rod and a width of projection, in a direction of a diameter of the cartridge, of the plurality of engagement projections, a heavy load is not applied to the part of the claws which retains the cosmetic material even during the operation of the cosmetic container. Consequently, it is possible to prevent the cosmetic material from being damaged or from coming off from the claws.
Further, the present invention is composed of any one of the cartridges described above and a container body in which the cartridge is housed in such a manner that the cartridge can easily be attached and detached, wherein when the cartridge is housed in the container body, the front cylinder is connected rotatably with respect to the container body, whereas the cylindrical body is connected unrotatably with respect to the container body.